Perfect Love
by Bonanza Jellybean
Summary: Tristan and Rory would be so perfect together, don't you think? Trory. R/R please!
1. Scene 1

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.  
  
Rory Gilmore licked her lips with antici . . . pation as she unfolded the note. She leaned against her locker and examined it closely. It was scrawled in ink on cream-colored stationery that was clearly expensive. More expensive than Jess would have been able to afford, anyway, and it wasn't Dean's style.   
  
"Dear Rory, I have returned from military school. I would like nothing better than the opportunity to make things right with you. Coffee, perhaps? I'll pick you up out front after school. Sincerely, Tristan."  
  
She sighed contentedly.  
  
"What's that, Gilmore?" Paris asked suspiciously, suddenly beside her.  
  
"What?"  
  
Paris stared at her.   
  
"Oh, this? It's a note. From Lane. Some records I'm supposed to pick up for her."  
  
"And it makes you that happy?"  
  
Rory blushed. "Uh, she just has really good taste." She hastily re-folded the paper into a tiny square that fit in her fist.  
  
Paris eyed her strangely and shrugged, then walked away.  
  
Oh, great. Now Paris probably thought there was something going on between her and Lane. But she didn't care. She smiled like a girl with a secret and read the note again. And again. 


	2. Scene 2

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

He sipped his coffee as she regarded him curiously.  
  
"I'm sorry," she explained finally. "I was just a bit surprised to get your note."  
  
He laughed. "I don't blame you. The boy I was, compared to the man I am now? I shudder to imagine how I must have seemed to you. You know, before."  
  
"How have you changed?" she asked nicely, not convinced at all that any such transformation had occurred.  
  
"Well, my attitude toward women, for one. It used to suck. I treated them like sex objects, or like items to add to my collection. So that's changed. I'm much more respectful now. And I've become a writer. A poet. Of course, that means I am now much more intellectual and sensitive." He smiled.  
  
"Oh, yeah?" she challenged. "Prove it."  
  
He held up his index finger as he produced a neatly-folded sheet of looseleaf from his pocket. He cleared his throat and began to read.  
  
If this had been a silly young adult novel, her mouth would have fallen open. As it stood, she was merely pleasantly surprised.  
  
"Wow. I mean, that's just, wow. I never expected that from you." She narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you didn't copy it from somewhere?"  
  
He grinned. "Hey, I told you: I'm a changed man."


	3. Scene 3

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

And he was, and she liked the changes, but she just couldn't bring herself to disappoint Dean. She and Tristan carried on in secret at school, and in Stars Hollow, she pretended like nothing was different. She didn't even tell her mother.  
  
But Dean knew.  
  
"There's something wrong," he accused her one night, sitting on her porch steps. "Did you and Jess-"  
  
"No," she answered quickly. Too quickly.  
  
"I knew it!" he exploded. "I knew I couldn't trust you. You promised me that things would be fine now, and you lied."  
  
"No, Dean, it's not like that," she insisted.  
  
"Not like what?" asked Tristan, who had approached them suddenly.  
  
"You? Where did you come from?" Dean asked, thoroughly confused.  
  
"My mother was born in 1952. She met my father at a social function twenty years later. Not long after that-"  
  
"Tris, don't," Rory sighed.  
  
"'Tris?'" Dean repeated. "What kind of pansy-ass nickname is that?"  
  
"Dean, there's no need for-"  
  
"So it wasn't Jess," he concluded.  
  
"It's not-"  
  
"I get it," he said quietly, and began to walk away.   
  
"Dean, stop!" Rory pleaded, chasing after him. She grabbed his arm, and he shook her off roughly-too roughly. He turned toward her, like a possessed man. She stumbled backward. Tristan intervened, inadvertently ending up on the wrong end of a shove from Dean. He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture.  
  
"Look, the lady's made her decision," Tristan began.  
  
Dean stared at Rory, who stood with her arms folded, looking at him anxiously.  
  
"Yeah, I guess she has," he said, effectively conceding defeat.  
  
After he left, Rory began to cry, although she couldn't quite explain why his departure had affected her so adversely.  
  
It didn't matter. Tristan held her for as long as she needed him to be there.  



	4. Scene 4

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

A month later, it was their anniversary. Tristan took her out to dinner at a nice place in Hartford. Afterward, instead of driving her home, he drove her back to his house. They went inside and watched his latest DVD purchase: "CQ," which they both found amusing, yet touching. When the movie was over, he offered to drive her home, but the conversation quickly degenerated into a grope-fest.  
  
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, breathing heavily.  
  
"Yes," she replied, having thought about it very carefully for at least an hour on each of the preceding 31 days.  
  
He drove her home when it was over so that her mother wouldn't be suspicious. She had insisted on keeping their relationship a secret from her mother because she knew Lorelai wouldn't approve of Tristan any more than she had Jess. No amount of explaining on Rory's part about how much Tristan had changed would convince her, and Rory wanted to make sure it was serious before she got into that particular argument with Lorelai. Again.  
  
"I really love you, Tris," she sighed happily, as he stopped the car. "I'm sorry it took me so long to realize you were this complex. I mean, before, I just thought you were shallow and vapid. I had no idea."  
  
"Neither did I," he said gently, leaning over to kiss her good night. "When I was at military school, all I could think about was making myself better so that I'd be good enough for you."  
  
"Well, it worked," she assured him, and smiled. 


	5. Scene 5

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

Everything was perfect. They didn't have any trouble with unwanted pregnancies or venereal diseases, because they were young and in love and happy.  
  
Therefore, it was a given that tragedy would soon strike.  
  
And it did.  
  
They were curled up on his couch, watching "Black Mama, White Mama." Suddenly Rory began to cough. It was like she couldn't stop. She covered her mouth with her hands and looked at him apologetically, until the pain became too unbearable. She winced, and when it was over, she withdrew her hands.   
  
Then he saw the blood...  
  
----  
  
It was a terribly tragic and sudden affliction that turned out to be hereditary, from Christopher's side of the family. Tristan couldn't remember the details. But he stayed at her bedside in the hospital for four hours every day.  
  
"Oh, Tris," Rory sighed sadly, one day, looking pale and weak. "Think of all the time we wasted"  
  
Tristan's eyes welled up with tears as he stroked her hair softly. "Love means never having to say you're sorry, Rory."  
  
She smiled. "That is, like, the cheesiest movie ever made," she teased.  
  
"It's an underrated modern classic," he corrected her gently, taking her hand in his.  
  
She laughed, but it turned into a coughing fit, and he felt awful for causing her such pain.  
  
"Even so, I'm sorry it took me so long to come around," he said.  
  
"Don't be," she told him. "I'm just glad you're here now"   
  
She leaned back against the pillow and closed her eyes. He decided to leave her alone to rest.  
  
On the way out, he encountered Lorelai, who had been watching their conversation through the window.  
  
He smiled weakly. She said, "Hey, you know, I keep meaning to say this, but it's not easy, so-I just wanted to tell you that in the beginning I thought you were bad news for Rory. You reminded me a lot of her father at your age. And I really wish she had told me about your relationship when it started, and I really wish I didn't find out about the night she got sick. But you're here for her now, and that really says a lot about you." She bit the last word off abruptly, and he waited to respond, to see if she had more to say.  
  
"Thank you," he replied simply, and walked away.


	6. Scene 6

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

Rory recovered from her illness a week after Lorelei's official acceptance of Tristan. Unfortunately, she was tragically killed in a car accident just four years later.  
  
Her funeral was well-attended. She had written an immensely popular novel about love and redemption; her fans littered the back rows of the chapel. In the front row were her mother Lorelai, her stepfather Luke, her husband Tristan, and her daughter Marianne.  
  
She had chosen the name from her favorite Jane Austen novel, Sense and Sensibility, but Tristan had always called the baby by its middle name: Leigh, the same as her own.  
  
As the pastor delivered a stirring speech, everyone around him began to tear up. Tristan, however, smiled, remembering the early days of their courtship. No one would ever have believed he was the kind of guy who would settle down at an early age, marry, and become a father. Her love had changed him, and he would be forever grateful.


End file.
